I know what you’re thinking, “It’s time to break out that price gun!” I hate to disappoint you, but a lot of places just give you an iPhone these days to scan items into your registry. Jett was not amused by this fact.

Registries are a pretty tough topic to write about because everyone is in a different life stage when they get married. You may be getting married straight out of college where your roommates previously had everything, in which case you need a lot of stuff- most importantly the basics. You may be getting married after living on your own for a while, so maybe you don’t need much. There are some general lessons Jett and I learned that could be applicable to more people- hopefully, you!

I’ve mentioned this before, but when Jett and I originally set our wedding date we thought he was going to be done with IOC in September and we would have a duty station. We thought we would already be living together when we got married… Well, that’s not how it happened. As our wedding date approached, I started sharing on social media that Jett and I would prefer gift cards over the actual gifts we had registered for.

I currently live with a roommate and have little space for new items. The plan, was for me to get rid of some of the lesser quality/well-worn items I have when we moved in together. I also didn’t want to open our wedding gifts and start using them without Jett. There is also the issue of moving all our stuff. We still don’t know if we will end up in North Carolina, Hawaii or even Japan- so we don’t need any extra items to tote around.

Luckily, we got tons of gift cards mostly to Amazon and Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Before Thanksgiving, I started going through our registry to order a few items we would need. I also ended up scouring the aisles at T.J. Maxx, Ross and Marshall’s. I learned that Amazon really isn’t the most affordable option. I ended up finding so many things for half the price at brick and mortar stores. At first, I was a little upset, I didn’t want these amazon cards to go to waste and I couldn’t buy gift cards for those stores through Amazon.

What I did find out, was that Amazon sells Southwest gift cards! Jett and I ended up paying for our Thanksgiving items out of pocket and put the Amazon gift cards towards Southwest gift cards to purchase flights for our holiday travel. It worked out fantastic!

Feel free to ask for gift cards and alert your friends and family when things change. Do what’s best for you and your fiancé.

I do strongly suggest going to a few stores and registering for gifts in person. It’s fun and it allows you two to see different styles and options and talk about what you like and want to see in your future home.

We attended a private registry event at Crate and Barrel. There were light snacks and we got to walk around and scan items together. There were only a few other couples and quite a bit of staff. I enjoyed it because there were no outside shoppers. We were able to wander around and talk about what we liked and didn’t like with each other. If we had questions about appliances there was always someone ready to assist us. Plus, we got a gift of stemless wine glasses in a cute burlap wine tote!

A lot of the items we originally registered for at Crate and Barrel didn’t make our final registry. The items seemed a little pricey and we were able to find things that more closely aligned with our styles elsewhere. It was a great starting point though.

The only other place we went in to add to our registry was Bed, Bath and Beyond. We didn’t attend a private event so the store was a little crowded but we were still able to easily find staff members if we had questions. A great tip that was shared with us was to register for the whole set of pots and pans, but register for the items individually too. If we got duplicates of anything we could easily return them, or we could return all the singular items we got and put their value towards the set.

“Register for the whole set of pots and pans, but register for the items individually too.”

The great thing about Bed, Bath and Beyond is there are always coupons and sales going on which makes it affordable for people to get you gifts.

What wedding registry gifts were your favorite? Do you have any registry suggestions for other military couples? Share them in the comment section below!